Article
June 22, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Mud and Pitch and Dancing (yes, Tyler danced!)

Fresh Hot Doubles!

Fresh Hot Doubles!

After all the fun we had exploring some on our first day in Trinidad we packed up and spent another day seeing some of the awesome sights Trinidad has to offer. However we had to grab some local breakfast first. Grenada and Trinidad alike are hearty, savory breakfast and big lunch with small suppers kind of places. The nutritionist at the hospital was baffled when I tried to explain to her that in the US we like to eat a muffin or a granola bar for breakfast. She was shocked it wasn’t fish and bread. So anyways, we just had to try these “hot doubles” that Kelsie said were so great and try our hand at a big, heavy breakfast. Well, they were amazing! Such a combination of flavors I had never had all together, but still tasted like breakfast. And they did a pretty good job keeping me full. Although since they normally like to eat lunch at 2 or 3 pm, I was still starving  by then.

The largest of the mud volcanos.Our first stop of the day was the mud volcano. It is a literal volcano that spews mud. I guess it erupts pretty massively every so often. Kelsie said she was pretty sure it had a big eruption fairly recently and that is why it was actually quite flat. Usually the little volcano-like peaks grow as they spill out mud but after the large eruption they spread the mud out. So it was not as impressive as if it was the huge peak, but still crazy to see it all bubbly. I guess next time I hear about a big eruption of the Trinidad mud volcano I can remember how powerful it really is even if it looks tame.

Look - Mud! You can see inside Tyler conquers volcano - at least I think that is what that face is. This one was bubbling

Our second stop was Pitch Lake. Apparently there is a gigantic lake of asphalt in Trinidad that basically supplies the world with asphalt. That’s right, the world. Who would have thunk that the roads I drove on most of my life came from this stuff. Tyler and I kept saying how we never even though about where asphalt came from. The lake is huge, and the rainfall causes lots of water to accumulate so you can actually swim or wade through that part. But we got to step on it and a lot of it was soft and mold-able like asphalt would be and there were pathways that were literally made from asphalt seeping up from the ground and melting together in the heat. 1/3 of the lake is liquid at anytime so the tour guide dug some of the tar up for us. Of course we were careful not to walk in those liquid areas. The whole think was fascinating and amazing and really cool! And maybe the rumors of the Pitch Lake water being good for your skin will prove true. Who knows.

Pitch Lake Pretty Day That would be asphalt - the stuff they once dug up to make your roads. The old mining cars
Standing on broken pieces of solid molded pitch Footprints we sunk into the soft asphalt. Pulling up the liquid tar Kelsie at the Pitch Lake - trying to avoid having her picture taken.

The last event for the night was dancing. Yes I said dancing! We went Latin Dancing with Kelsie to this club that she goes to regularly.

All of us at the club!

All of us at the club!

She arranged for tickets for the both of us so even Tyler couldn’t say no. Anyone that has ever met my loving and wonderful husband knows that among all of his marvelous qualities, dancing is no where to be found. But, I got him to dance! Yes, that is right – he DANCED! He was likely the only guy there who actually got asked by a girl to dance (not me for the record) but he did it. I was unable to capture it on camera as I was immediately pulled up to dance. Kelsie’s dance instructor and one of the other students in Kelsie’s class were gracious enough to show Tyler the basic moves so he could dance one song with me. He did okay, but could use some work. But this might make it easier to get him to take classes with me as I have been begging him to do. Tyler took a few pictures of me but they didn’t come out that great. I always have countless attempts at taking photos while dancing and they always look the same – very unimpressive. But it was truly a fun night. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously and were out later than we ever are even though we proceeded to get up to make it to 6am church the next day.

Article
June 21, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

The Wild Fowl Trust and Hitting the Avenue

Tyler with the peacock at the entrance.

Tyler with the peacock at the entrance.

So after the East Indian Cultural Lesson, we headed over to see this beautiful nature preserve that is smack dab in the middle of the giant oil factory. Kind of ironic ey? But Trinidad is like the US in the fact that they tend to destroy the natural beauty around (and the wildlife with it) for the sake of development and then realize that an important part of their country is disappearing so then try and preserve it again by rebuilding the natural habitat into preserves, etc. That is basically what the Wild Fowl Trust is, a nature preserve to maintain the high diversity of fauna and different species of birds native to the Trinidad and to create a space to teach children about conservation. Honestly, I think I was reminded of like three field trips I probably went on as a kid that were exactly like that.

Anyways, no matter why it is there the place is beautiful. Lush and full of vegetation and the walkway completely encircles this beautiful pond. It was of course a super rainy day and most of the place was a big mushy mud puddle – perfect in my white sandals – but it was worth trekking through.

Here are just some of the awesome photos I managed to get of the place.

So lush and colorful This bird was very curious. The national bird of Trinidad, the Scarlet Ibis Walking around the compound
Kelsie and her Mom Awesome Hindu Statue The pond full of lotus flowers So bright and colorful
Grabbing a drink at the Avenue

Grabbing a drink at the Avenue

After we made it to their house, we rested up and then decided to head to the Avenue in Port of Spain, the capitol of Trinidad, for dinner and to stroll along the street that is lined with clubs and bars and nightlife. It is apparently a popular thing to do. We mostly just hung out and walked around. But we did grab a drink at a local roadside bar just so we could say we did. And with no open bottle policy, you can stroll around with your beer too! We even went up on a hill to see a beautiful overview of the city lights at night – it was so magical. Wish I could have captured it properly on my camera.

Such a great first day!

 

Article
June 20, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

How We Practically Became East Indian

Tyler and I at the Hindu Temple

Tyler and I at the Hindu Temple

So to blog our trip to Trinidad, rather than blog a long two or three part series with a day by day account, I have decided to share some of the fun stories we have from our time and of course the lovely pictures and allow them to tell of the fun we had in Trinidad. So, do be sure to read the first installment about our insane airport adventure.

So to recap, Tyler and I went to Trinidad and Tobago (Trinidad for short) to visit my friend and study buddy Kelsie. She planned for us a trip packed full of adventures and sight-seeing and there is still so much to do there. She says it is for the next time we come. I was so proud of her for planning so many adventures, she isn’t a big plan-ahead person. So on the way from the airport we started our adventures and went on an East-Indian cultural extravaganza. We visited the Hindu temple built out in the ocean, got to see some cremations going on, saw the tall Hanuman statue, went to the cultural museum, and ate Roti’s which is an IndoCaribbean dish. And later in the weekend we even bought me a Sari (yes, I look awesome and I do intend to wear it to something) and went to a cultural fair type thing for India. I don’t think Tyler and I have ever learned so much about how one culture influenced a whole nation before on vacation.

So basically, we had an East Indian themed visit. There are a lot of East Indians in Grenada and of course even more in Trinidad. You can see the Hindu flags flying all over in peoples yards and in parks to designate holy places of sacrifice and remembrance and such.

I must say, I liked this part of our trip.

And of course a few more pictures.

Hindu flags flying at the temple. The Hanuman Statue - unfortunately under renovation. Kelsie and I at the Statue More of the East Indian Cultural Compound.
Article
June 20, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Scrappy Part II

Such a handsome boy!

Such a handsome boy!

So you remember Scrappy, the adorable stray dog we befriended? Well, last night he found us at the beach as we were leaving for dinner. We were walking back to our car and we saw this dog that we thought looked like Scrappy. We couldn’t tell and we hadn’t seen him in a few weeks despite looking for him. But then he stretched out his legs really big and let out a huge puppy sigh/yawn and we knew it was him.

Since last time we saw him we decided that if we found him again we would go buy him something, Tyler graciously let me go run to IGA to buy the dog some food and bones. But little ol’ Scrap likes me better and wouldn’t stay with Tyler long enough to let me leave, he would just bound after me. So I stayed with him in the grass and Tyler went to the store. All-in-all we gave him a nice tasty can of dog food and bought him a box of bones and a raw hide bone. He was the happiest little dog in the world. I gave him the bone to chew on for a while but I took it with me when we left so he would have it again…and I was really concerned he would eat too much and get sick.

We ended up spending a couple hours sitting in the grass playing with scrappy. He was so hungry he scarfed down his food and kept trying to get in the car to search for more bones, but he finally gave up and settled for belly rubs.

Who loves his belly rubbed? I do of course!

Who loves his belly rubbed? I do of course!

We had to leave him behind again which was the saddest thing. He followed us in our car down the road for a bit, but he eventually gave up and went back to pick up the bones we left him in the grass. We so wish we could keep him. I am still thinking that if I keep seeing him I might just stick him in my car and take him to the vet and see how much it costs to get him checked out. Living with us sure has to be better than being all alone. He is just so friendly, should be an easy dog.

I even saw him again this morning at the beach. We were on our way out but I had my trusty box of bones so I gave him some more. If we run into him again when we have more time maybe we will get him another can of food. We are basically adopting him, but we just can’t take him home.  🙁

Anyways, here are some more pictures of him we took. Enjoy!

He is so happy! Scrappy will do anything for bones. Scrappy loves Tyler too! Enjoying his bone.
Article
June 19, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

The Crazy Americans at the Airport

So I have so many good pictures and stories to tell of our trip to Trinidad, which I promise to get on the blog soon – but this story is just too good to not tell now.

So Tyler and I really did plan out our trip to Trinidad. We checked with my friend Kelsie to be sure that we were still clear to stay with her and her family, we emailed our flight itinerary, etc. We had it planned. I got Kelsie’s Trinidadian number from her before she left Grenada since obviously her Grenadian cell number would not work. All great.

Now fast forward to us going through customs. Standing in line I check my phone to realize the text I sent Kelsie before boarding the plane was responded to with a wrong number text – so we don’t have a contact number. We talk to the lady at immigration and she asks us the address of where we are staying – all we have is the city (they don’t care in Grenada so we didn’t think about it). They ask us if we have a contact number for our friend, of course we just found out we don’t. Then she asks us if we have a return ticket – so we show her the post-it we wrote the information on since we don’t have a printer. Basically, we are the two shadiest people trying to enter the country.

Needless to say, they wouldn’t let us through a for a bit and we were totally stuck in the airport unable to enter the country and unable to leave. They decide to page Kelsie (like that will work in a huge airport when she is waiting outside in a car) and fortunately when we didn’t emerge from the airport (the plane only have maybe 40 seats and only 20 passengers) she called us. Finally with a number and a name they gave us our entry visa. Kelsie still had to vouch for us at the arrival gate to say that we were indeed her friends.

Guess we were just the crazy shady Americans trying to sneak our way into the country. Makes it even more bizarre that after all of that instead of writing our visa through our departure date, they gave us the full 90 days.

Article
June 13, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

The Move

So, this post is delayed but I kept being lazy about composing a photo tour. But finally, I finished it.

Old Apartment

Just look at those walls.

Tyler and I decided not to move after my first Term because the stress of trying to find a new place, move, and then make a trip home for the holidays was just too much. So after enduring another 4 months in our old place, we decided that we needed to ensure we found a really awesome new apartment to live. You do remember we lived in a lime green mailbox right? If not, there is little photo to remind you. But really, that doesn’t do it quite justice as that is a picture in its prime. Right when we moved in, before we acquired the rest of our stuff (ie. school books) and before the walls started to peel off. But anyways, that is behind us now.

So our new place is now off of the main road (and down a perilous dirt road, but more on that another time) and right on the water. We have fruit trees, and couches, and more than 2 plates, and even a door that can separate two complete rooms. It is magical. But in all seriousness, it is a beautiful place. We absolutely love it here. It has room for us to entertain guests, room for us to both be working and doing things in the apartment at the same time without getting on each others nerves or in each others way. And to make things better, we get terrific breeze, have lots of bright open windows, and a patio we can sit on. And there is even a deck and a pool on the property. That is technically part of the main house that we do not live in, but we will likely share it with whoever is here anyways. So we are excited about it all!

So now, if you were not sure you wanted to come visit us before, you will be now. So please, go through our photos and enjoy your virtual tour!  🙂

Patio

This is our front porch patio

Then we have our backyard – the fruit trees and flowers we see while sitting on our porch.

backyardSome of the Fruit Trees

Then we walk to the fence and see the Bay we live on. Just look at all those boats parked in our backyard.

our backyard - the baylook at these boats in our backyard

Alright, lets take a look inside. This is the kitchen.

This is our Kitchen

And here is a view of the dining room with the kitchen in the background and with the living room in the background.

dining roomdining and living room

Then we will move to the living room. Just look at all that seating. And our beautiful map of course on the wall. That white table will be my first big painting project, but more on that later.

Living RoomCouch and Map

And we must show off the lovely little shelf unit with all of our fun stuff we have collected. This part of the apartment provides all of the color and character. And yes, we are in love with that painting. This is also where the majority of our Grenada stuff is.

Our ShelfSome of our favorite things

Now lets move to the other room. This is our bedroom/office. First lets look at the desk. So excited to have such a nice dedicated work and study space.

Desk

Now here is a view of our bed and the sweet little couch and shelving unit in our room.

Bedroomsecond couch and shelf

And of course here is my personal favorite, the huge closet! I know, looks small to you. But this is about 3x the space I had before.

closet

And the last room on the tour is the bathroom. I was so excited to put up the shower curtain I got for my bridal shower – it is so much better than what was up when we moved in.

BathroomBathroom Part 2

And that concludes our tour. We love our new apartment so much. We love having extra space and we love that we were able to make it so homey. I mean the curtains are a little ugly and the couches have an interesting patterns that we just pretend isn’t there (hence the use of colorful stripped pillows anyways). We love it. And I am becoming more and more obsessed with finding little projects to help make it look a little better by adding small touches. Can’t wait to see with a whole apartment filled with all my own stuff where I can paint walls and furniture to my hearts content. One day!  🙂

 

Article
June 11, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Our First Hash

Us and some of the Foster family we hashed with.

Us and some of the Foster family we hashed with.

It was not long after arriving in Grenada that we learned of the “secret” sport of hashing. So it quickly made it onto our bucket list of things to do, but like most things we never really go to it. Many of the hashes are not on our side of the island and I am just too busy during most weekends to get away. But finally we made plans and stuck to it and went this Saturday. And what a BLAST!!

Basically hashing is an organized hike open to anyone who comes that takes you up through the backwoods and forests of Grenada. And to make things more interesting there are false trails and shortcuts and all sorts of goodies like that to make it all more adventurous. And our course a trail of paper globs to keep your from disappearing into the abyss. This particular hash had us climbing straight up the muddy slopes of a mountain through the rainforest and then back down through some villages of St. Paul. We loved it. Honestly, we can’t wait to go again. We were dirty and sweaty after our little hash, but it was so cool to see. And we even found some cocoa pods in the forest that we brought home to enjoy as a snack. Tyler and I are addicted to the fruit around the beans – tasty. We will certainly be repeating this adventure again soon.

Just starting out - when the hash seemed easy and we had no idea how big the mountain was. Using ropes to make it up the steep, slippery mountainside Yep, we are in the forests now Tyler was still making his silly smile face though
Some of the sweet views once we finally got the top Tyler conquered the mountain walking down a false trail - so sad to have to walk back up again. Views
Article
June 11, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

An Ode to Scrappy

It was a sunny weekday morning and Tyler and I were indulging in our typical workout routine. Tyler went to the beach for a swim and me to the gym. As I walked to the beach after my workout to meet Tyler I saw the little ball of fluff curled up next to Ty. And then the story was told of how Scrappy was wandering down the beach and bounded towards Tyler with friendliness and love and decided that Tyler was his new best friend. And so I met Scrappy and his little doggie eyes melted my heart. And unlike most stray dogs in Grenada, he was actually friendly and adorable.

So as Tyler and I began to get up to leave, Scrappy began to follow us. He was certain that we would make a wonderful little family to join. So he walked with us all the way back over to where the car was parked. And as Tyler said, he was such a good walker. He didn’t even need a leash and he never left our side. And as we got the car in hopes of heading back home, little ol’ Scrap just hopped on in. He jumped in my lap and kissed my cheek, getting pounds of sand and dog hair all in our impeccably unclean car. But alas, we could not keep sweet Scrappy. He probably had parasites anyways. So we parted ways. But now everytime I go to the beach I look for him. I think he misses us.

Moral of the Story: We really need a dog!!!!

Article
June 7, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Umbrellas Late-Night and Belmont Estate (again)

So last night our new Greek friend invited us to come have a drink with her and a German couple down at Umbrellas, one of our favorite beach-side bars. Tyler’s love of Germany encouraged her to invite us along to meet them and it continued our trend of befriending the foreigners here in Grenada as opposed to the other med students.

But as the night turned out, we ended up a huge group of mostly med students who were finishing clinicals by working at the hospital in St. George’s (just about to graduate), Tyler and I, our Greek friend who is also doing rotations at the hospital, and one other student who is also in my term. He remembered quite vividly an incident where I apparently “shushed” him during an exam and he now holds it against me. I will likely never live it down now. But anyways, we had quite a blast. It was great for me to talk to so many people working in the hospital, but more than that we just love meeting people. Especially people who are not from America.

Today we travelled to Belmont Estate, where the grow the cocoa beans. Since it is one of my favorite places I wanted to be sure the Greek student got to see and experience all it had to offer.

Belmont Sign

Me, Tyler, and Anthia

It was great! We of course enjoyed the delicious local food (and ate way too much) and ate lots and lots of cocoa samples. I think I eat more than the 5EC cost of my tour in sample chocolate every time! This was my third time at Belmont and my third time taking the tour so I am practically qualified to give it. The tour guide had me try and name all the fruits and spices they had out – I didn’t do half-bad. I just always forget the few that are really really weird. But even though I have been on the tour a lot, each guide always adds some more extra. Tyler and my favorite part is eating the raw cocoa fruit out of the pod. The fruit is so tasty and after you eat it, you can totally catch the subtle fruit flavors in the cocoa you eat. Changes how you view chocolate. We joke that if we could only buy the cocoa pods, we would crack one open and suck on it for a snack in the afternoon.

This time we asked the tour guide about one of Belmont’s little secrets, the monkeys. He took us up to see some of the animals, including the monkeys! I was so excited. We were also supposed to go see the goats and get to bottle feed the little babies, but unfortunately we had to leave since Tyler had a conference call to make it back for in the evening.

Just look at that face They like to hold hands This one didn't want to come play Love this

All in all it made for a great day! So excited for the next time when we journey up there again! I guess if we befriend some Northumbria GSP students or anyone else new to the island. The guy that led our tour was also super nice and spent quite a bit of time talking to us about Grenada and gave me some recipes for making provisions and saltfish and told us about the awesome foodstands. We told him we wished we could live in his village, sounded so awesome. It was a great day!

Article
June 6, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Summer Adventures Thus Far

So I should probably take the time to blog about our move and post up pictures of the beautiful new apartment and all of that, but that is just so much work. After trying to get through all the pictures from our vacation, I just want to write about adventures.

Summer so far has been great! It is so nice to have time where I am not supposed to be doing something every minute of every day. I have been able to cook every meal again and that has been fantastic! Tyler is loving having me home to make delicious lunches for him most days and he is loving eating my home cooking every night instead of having to resort to quick food near campus because of exam studying.

Also, since getting into our new apartment we have been able to have dinner parties again which is pretty much the greatest thing ever for us. We just love to to entertain people. I love to make lots of food for a crowd and Tyler loves offering our home up and we love bringing people over to share with them all of the quirky things we have collected that now fill our new home. Honestly, having a new place with more than two plates, more than two chairs, and a couple couches is probably the best thing for our sanity, our marriage, and for building our community here than we could ever imagine. We have already bonded close with a couple people who are here for the summer and are not super busy studying for term 4 or boards that we probably would never have gotten to know so well otherwise. And people here often appreciate a place to come to get some good home cooking and we love blessing people with that.

On Sunday we met a girl who is here as an exchange student working at the General Hospital for 3 weeks from Greece. She is here by herself and living on campus with everyone that is studying hardcore for exams. We got introduced to her at church and were able to have her over for dinner which was such a blessing. It is so great getting to know her and blessing her with some friends she can hang out with, people who can share with her more about the island, and meeting a couple who genuinely loves living here and is willing to bring her along on our adventures. And it forces us to go and make plans to do fun stuff so we are pretty excited to start spending more time enjoying what Grenada has to offer anyways.

The last big thing Tyler and I have been doing this summer is we volunteered to take over leading the weekly church services through CSA. We signed up for it mostly because we knew we were the only ones that would be here all summer with no obligations, but I know I have found it much more rewarding that I would have expected. The group is smaller and people spend more time socializing and it has allowed us more time to feel a part of the group rather than feeling like we say every week in a large room with a bunch of strangers. And of course, if we were not the ones up front leading on Sunday I am positive we would not have gotten introduced to the Greek student and asked if we could show her around.

All in all, summer is off to a marvelous start. And my new sticker for my new laptop finally arrived and today should be the first day of my summer USMLE studying. So all in all, a great day! More soon!

Article
June 4, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Vacation in Carriacou – Part 3

So when first researching this trip, we learned that we could take a day-long snorkeling trip on a ship that was used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies up through the Grenadines and the Tobago Cays. If you know me just a little, this was quite possibly the greatest news I could have received. So we immediately started looking into it and lucky for us, we got on a trip. As you know from the story in Part 2, we were weathered out from our scheduled day buy found out that there was room on a different trip scheduled for Friday.

So we made the arrangements again and got ourselves up early, sunscreened to perfection, and made our way to the other side of the Island. Fortunately for us, our speed boat driver Rameez was already there waiting for us. Challenge one was at least overcome.

The weather was better, but certainly not storm free. Upon getting into the speedboat and taking off to meet the ship in international waters to avoid the hassel and time of going through customs and immigrations (afterall we were never really going to step foot on land so we thought), I immediately began to regret this decision. It was probably the most terrifying thing I have ever done. The waves and the rain and Rameez’s “need for speed” had me terrified and in a panic. Tyler eventually asked him to take it a little easier on the waves and that helped, but I was praising God for bringing me safely to the dock of Union Island.

So we ended up on Union Island safe thankfully, only to be informed that due to overcrowding on the tiny 8 seat plane, we would need to wait for the rest of the passengers to arrive. So we were given instructions to explore the island. We instantly wished we had our passports because now we had time for customs and we both really wanted our stamp! But alas, we were illegal immigrants wandering around the cute little island that is part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It was actually an adorable little town and we had a ton of fun exploring it.

On the dock - only a little worse for the wear. Stefanie and the St. Vincent Flag Tyler and the Welcome Sign Our boat floating off shore - Capt. Jack would be proud.

After exploring Union Island we met up with the captain and he took us aboard the Satori (our ship). We got there before anyone else so we enjoyed walking about and had some delicious breakfast snacks on board. Then as a giant rainstorm rolled in we went below deck with the crew. It was cool to see all inside. They fit 3 full-size bedrooms on the thing! The crew were actually really cool and we had some fun hanging out with them before setting sail. We set-off a little late, but it was still so worth it.

Once we met our fellow mates, we set sail for Mayreau which was our first stop. This island is inhabited, but not by very many people. There is only one village with about 300 people. The captain said they just had electricity brought in like 10 years ago.

Stefanie on the Ship - Yo Ho! Mayreau Some of what we saw while snorkeling On the boat

Then we set sail for the Cays. The Cays are known to grow a special grass that apparently is like crack to sea turtles and it is supposed to be the best place to see them. Boy are they right! I could not believe how many there were. When we first walked into the water and put our head down, we saw about 8 of them all around us. We basically startled them by walking in. We would swim with one or two we saw, and when they got too fast, we would just wait a minute or so and another one would swim up. It was incredible! And to top it all off, they filmed some of the Pirates movies in the Grenadines and we were able to see the island that Jack Sparrow was marooned on in the films. So awesome! Our nerdy hearts were filled to the brim. After swimming with turtled for a while we headed to the reefs to see what kinds of fish and other sea life we might spot and then headed back to the Satori for lunch. A yummy Grenadian lunch with lots of rum punch to go around followed by rum cake and of course, coffee and rum! The rum is never gone down here.

One of the Cays View of Jack's Island from one of the other cays we stopped at. We were able to get this close to sea turtles
The coral reefs with the fish, if you can see them. More of the reefs Stefanie snorkeling Us on the boat with the cays in the back

After that we made on last stop to a resort island called Palm Island. It is one of those islands that all it is is a resort and people pay like upwards of 600 dollars a night to stay there. In fact, we found it a little boring. But I guess it was cool to see. Not sure what is worth all that money since the beaches were were staying at seemed just as nice. But, oh hey. Our speedboat guy came and met us at Palm and we jumped in his little black boat and headed back to our little Carriacou. The trip back was a little less terrifying and I think I enjoyed it more. Our night ended with a delicious fresh fish meal cooked by the wife of the guy who owned the house we stayed at. We figured after all that swimming in the sea, we would want nothing more than to eat the deliciousness inside it.

 

And sadly all good things come to an end so we unfortunately had to fly out on Friday. So we headed to the airport, were the only ones there, went through the most pathetic excuse for airline security, and boarded our tiny little plane. We were the only 2 passengers – what a great deal! We were able to catch some sweet air shots of Carriacou as we took off. And that was the end of quite possible the best vacation ever. I suppose we will likely top it eventually, but whenever we travel together we always make the best adventure out of it. That is why I love Tyler, he makes everything a million times more fun.  🙂

The hillside we stayed in - look for the blue house! View of Sandy Island from the air Carriacou One last view of Carriacou
Article
June 4, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Vacation in Carriacou – Part 2

View of Petite Martinique from the dock.After a fun day on Sandy Island, Tyler and I decided that checking off another island from our list was a must do. So we booked a ferry ride to Petite Martinique, the third Island of Grenada’s tri-island state. It is significantly smaller than even Carriacou and only about 700 people live there. We basically took the ferry from the docks of Carriacou, got off at PM, at lunch and walked the main beach, then took the ferry back. And that was the highlight of the island. But we did decide to take some cool pics with our Toms flag as we figured this was one of the best far-corners-of-the-map kind of places we could take it to.

Stefanie with the flag.Tyler with the flag.

 

We were pretty exhausted after a couple days of Island hoping. We ended up decided to lay low and hang around the little inn we were staying in more the next couple days. We even made some delicious homemade pizza on Tuesday night to enjoy with our anniversary wine. I was given a wonderful bottle of wine at my bachelorette party and Tyler and I, since we couldn’t eat a piece of cake from the big day (or what we decided would be a cupcake from the same bakery) we settled for opening the bottle. So not only did we shlep the bottle all the way to Grenada, but we packed it up and flew it with us to Carriacou. Amazingly it made all of the trips fine and it was delicious! Happy 1 year to us!!Our Wine

Wednesday we were planning on going on this epic pirate ship boat ride (more on that later), but the weather just did not cooperate. I have decided that we left for Carriacou and it was dry season and came back during wet season. After 3 days of picture perfect Caribbean weather, the skies decided that a least 2 days or fairly consistent torrential rain was in order. However, we were never informed that the weather would hinder the boat trip so despite the fact that the weather was awful, I put on my adventure face and got ready for a day of sailing and snorkeling. We arranged the taxi driver who was just barely able to make it up the road to where we were staying thanks to the mud, and hiked up the muddy driveway he couldn’t make it down to meet him. We proceeded to have him drive us half-way around the island to the north where we were supposed to meet a guy who would take us by speedboat to meet up with the ship moored outside Union Island, only he didn’t show. After we stood out in the pouring rain for a good half-hour, we called the lady who organized the trip who found out for us that the speedboat driver was waiting for a break in the weather (did I ever mention that Grenadians hate rain??) that never came. We were pretty certain we would not meet up with the boat in time, so, quite wet and disappointed we headed back to our side of the Island.

We spent some time walking through downtown Hillsborough, the only real main city in Carriacou. And even found the most adorable little family of puppies that Tyler wouldn’t let me pet for fear I might try and smuggle one home. And to top off the day, we had to walk the lovely dirt road back up to the place we were staying at. We had mud stuck to our shoes no lie about 6 inches thick. It was quite a feat. I decided that we should have just stayed in bed, it would have saved us the heartache. But we did our best to redeem the night by playing endless hours of monopoly, watching movies, and eating pesto pasta. That almost made up for the mud – but not quite.

Here are some pictures from a little exploring we did on Tuesday…

On our balcony Can't beat that view Enjoying the view from the top of the jetty we hiked to. Pretty

…And some more pictures of the town.

The puppies! Fountain by the tourism office Statue Close-up of an awesome hand carved wooden statue from the museum
Article
June 2, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Vacation in Carriacou – Part 1

There is no better way to celebrate finishing the first year of medical school and a one year wedding anniversary than travelling to a small, quiet and remote Caribbean island for sand, sun, and fun. However, since we live on a small Caribbean island we decided to travel to an even smaller one!

Tyler and I spent a week in Carriacou at the end of May. Carriacou is part of Grenada and is not too far off of the northern shores. We decided to fly because we were hoping that our adorable little 8 seater plane would allow us to get some great overhead views of Grenada and the other small, uninhabited islands as we flew over.

planes

Look at how little our yellow plane is compared to that big Delta jet!

Tyler and I found this little place to stay at that was way up in the hills and away from everything! It was basically someone’s house that used the bottom level as a little inn. We actually met the guy at the dentist who owns the place a while back, and it was funny that we ended up coming to stay with him afterall. Our room had a balcony that overlooked the water with a terrific view of some of Carriacou’s cays and then you could even see the southern-most part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Union Island.

How I spent each morning - lounging in the sun on our deck!Some of the cays and our view.

We arrived into Carriacou early on Saturday morning. It is only a 20 minute flight from Grenada and the airport is smaller than small, so we were walking along the private white sand beaches of where we were staying less than 2 hours after take-off. Our first day we spent mostly exploring Paradise Beach and napping – my favorite pastime really. Oh, and reading. Feels so good to read fun books again!

On day two we headed out in a random guys little power fishing boat out to a little tiny island that was maybe a mile off of the coast of Carriacou. We were staring at it from our balcony and decided that we should go there. We were the only people on the island for the whole day. So we snorkled, at a picnic lunch, and enjoyed marooning ourselves on a private island for a day. It was such a blast!

A little panorama from our island

Here are some pictures of our views while flying…

View of SGU Lots of little colorful houses Prickly Bay - where our new apartment now sits on. Some of Grenada's cays

…and here are some more pictures of our Sandy Island adventures. We even saw a sea turtle, which was absolutely amazing!

Speedboating over Laying on the perfect white sand Some fun rock statues
Some of the thousands of little fishes we saw as soon as we got in the water Colorful fish More fish and reef The reef was so mesmorizing
The turtle! He was just chilling looking for food. Tyler and the turtle More awesome fish
Article
May 17, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

School is out! Now Time for Fun.

Another term down. In fact, a whole year down.

It is hard to believe that my first year of medical school is finally finished. It was a long and brutal road the last 18 weeks. But I am proud of how I did and I feel like I truly glorified the Lord by working to the fullest of the abilities He has blessed me with to finish the term strong. And I am so grateful for my amazing husband who stuck it out in the trenches with me even when that included late nights in freezing cold study halls (yes, they way overuse AC here).

We were blessed to celebrate our 1 year anniversary too – of course right in the middle of exams. But that is okay, we took it in stride and we leave Saturday on our 1 year anniversary trip! We could not be more excited. We have such a fun and exciting adventure planned of exploring all around our little Caribbean paradise.

This last week Tyler and I have been taking it easy. I have been napping, a lot. And indulging in all of my favorite post-exam activities like getting my requisite massage and a mani/pedi. And of course my first trip to the beach in ages (so sad, I know) left me a bright red lobster and from what I can tell I am starting to peel at the moment. My back still hurts, but oh well. That is what happens when you don’t put on sunscreen. I wasn’t exactly planning on being there for as long as I was.

I also took a trip around the island up to Belmont with a bunch of friends from school that had not left the island left. It was my first time really driving in Grenada so me and our new car got some time to bond. I unfortunately don’t have any pictures from this trip, but it was a blast – rain and all! We have an amazing lunch and got to stock up on some more delicious chocolate.

Tyler and I have been trying to get out together as much as possible. We are being so healthy and he is going swimming in the morning while I go the gym and we even made it down to the beach for a nice sunset drink and stroll last night. It feels so nice to not have to be working at all hours.

Here are a few pictures to enjoy. More to come after vacation!

Love this guy!

Love this guy!

 

Sunsets here are magical.Our beautiful Grand Anse Beach!

Article
May 4, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Worst Week Ever – 2 weeks later….

I just walked out for a minute. Really. As long as it took to walk from the study hall to the library where the clean bathrooms are and come back. And it was gone. My beautiful, wonderful, still new feeling laptop was gone.

Yep, my poor laptop was stolen from the study hall what was now two weekends ago. In the time that my study buddy and I stepped out for a quick break and someone swiped it. Surprising considering the hall was full, and everyone knows that I am the girl with the laptop with the ridiculously awesome and ridiculously cute monkey sticker on my computer. So our weekend and really, the following week, went straight down the toilet. The process of reporting the theft and figuring out what to do was nothing less than awful. Plus I lost tons of work that I had done – sure made me wish I hadn’t chose to be so productive that week and stay up so late that I was forgetting to back-up my computer at night.

Long story short, and an unexpected flight to Florida for Tyler, I have a shiny new macbook and the studying carries on. I am even getting over all the upgrades since switching to Lion and my computer is starting to scare me less. I was so blessed during the whole ordeal that one of my classmates let me borrow his laptop for a few days while Tyler was gone. And since we had just upgraded my dropbox account to the fancy paid version, I was able to start using cloud syncing as what is now my third backup system, just in case.

But, life moves on and even though it was two weeks before finals began and I was computer-less, finals didn’t stop coming closer. Test 1 was today and it went well and the study marathon is on. So hard to believe that in just 10 days I will be 1/4 of a doctor!

5 more tests to go and then a much needed break will be had. And in 2 weeks from tomorrow Tyler and I fly off to Carriacou to celebrate our first anniversary!  So excited.  🙂

Now back to studying.

Article
March 23, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Post-Exam Relaxation (Alt Title: Tyler and Stefanie’s Weekend of Crazy Bus Stories)

Drinks

The epitome of post-exams: cocktails along the perfect blue sea

Another exam week has come and gone. I am pretty sure that school is measured in exam weeks, not terms. Sure, 5 term until I leave Grenada.  But what I really see is 5 midterm weeks and 5 final weeks. My life revolves around the exam cycle. The lull right after exams end, the continual work in the inbetween, the intense seeming 24-hour blur of studying the couple weeks right before and then the amazing feeling of relief the minute you put the pencil down and hand in the scantron of the last exam. And no matter how aweful the week was, it always never seems half as bad the weekend after (and certainly not once you receive good marks)

With each round of exams it gets both easier and harder. The material gets harder. There are more complex things to learn, more diseases and drugs to memorize, more material covered, and of course more to integrate. But it also gets easier. I get better at it. I learn how to pace myself better, how to motivate myself. I learn what work to do throughout the term so I enter exams in a better place. I learn how early to start so I am not rushing and cramming at the end. And most importantly for me, with each exam week Tyler learns how to be a more supportive husband. Living with a med student during exam week is not easy. I don’t even like being around my fellow students during exams sometimes. But he handles my stress better, helps me relax better, calms my nerves better, and learns not to take my short temper to seriously when I have only had 4 hours of sleep and one cup of coffee. And I too learn to maybe lay off the stress-induced rants about the dishes or curtains, or really whatever it is that I feel so frustrated by. We work better as a unit, learning to have a little grace and to try and bite the tongue when needed.

I am currently in the post-midterm lull. Exams finished last week and I am quite happy with how I did. However, trying to recouperate about 3 weeks of shortened nights and living in a continued state of stress and busy is hard to do in a weekend. It seems quite cruel to give us but a mere two days off. But alas, Tyler and I sought to make last weekend fun and relaxing. And as Tyler said, he was just happy to have me around again and to not have to spend any time in the study halls.

Friday started off with me and my study buddy getting massages. We have now decided that this will be a post-exam tradition and are pretty sure we will book now for after finals. So relaxing! And it gave Tyler a chance to finish up his work day without my distraction. Friday night we decided to go to dinner at a nice restaurant up near Grand Etang called the Spice Basket. We had never been there before but it was supposed to be a nice local food restaurant that forms part of the cultural center of Grenada. In true Tyler and Stefanie fashion, we decided we would take the local buses up there (changing buses in downtown and all) instead of taking a taxi. And of course it was rainy, we never get good weather when we want it. So we headed into St. George’s at about 6:30pm on a Friday night to be the only 2 white people there (seriously!) and to stand in the crowds of people waiting for buses to take them home.

Now I have long complained about how pushy the students are when getting on the school buses. People push and shove and rush the bus, and it is simply ridiculous. Well, apparently I hadn’t seen anything yet. The way the locals behave, I am surprised that people don’t wind up injured. After about the 4th bus came by heading the way we needed to go, we managed to get on. And naturally, we were the “odd white people sitting in back that wanted to get off way before everyone else did.”

The restaurant was truly lovely. We were the only ones there, likely due to the rain, but it was still lovely. The food was amazing, the drinks beautiful and tasty and we had a great time. And had great service since we were the only 2 customers for all 5 servers that were there that night. We loved the food and discovered a new local favorite, Callaloo lasagna. I think I am going to have to try my hand at whipping one up. Maybe in time to impress Tyler’s parents when they come this summer.

Our trip back was naturally no less adventurous than the first one. We can sum it up by saying that we were impressed that our driver was driving a stick shift in the pouring rain, drinking a beer, and watching music videos. I know, you are all probably terrified for our safety but like it or not, that is typical around here.

Breakfast MenuSaturday was a day of relaxing and adventuring. We went out to breakfast at the most adorable French Cafe! We love going out to breakfast, but it is not a typical thing to do around here. This is now my new favorite place, we will be going back for sure. The food and the coffee was delicious. I have never had better french toast in my life. And Tyler told me that he will by me the sweet Le Crusset ramekins so that I can make him the eggs en cocotte he so loved once we are back in the States. After a delicious and filling breakfast we decided to head to St. George’s to walk around and explore.

Latte

A delicious Latte!

The best french toast!

The best french toast!

It turned out to be a weekend full of crazy bus experiences because while riding in the bus to town, he suddenly started blaring his horn, sped up and zoomed through traffic the wrong way down the one way street and powered up this stepp shortcut up the mountain that leads to town. It wasn’t until I recognized the route from taking it when I go to the hospital that I realized where we were going. It turned out that once of the passengers was having an asthma attack so the bus turned into an ambulance. And once we got the the ER, the weirdness continued as some random man came up to the driver begging him to take back this shirtless SGU student. It is against the law in Grenada to be in a car without a shirt so the bus driver graciously decided to take the guy, who likely was brought there in some sort of post-exam drunken stuppor, home. The guy swore someone at the hospital stole his short, so it was quite an amusing scene.

Once we made it to town, the real fun part began. There are so many little stores and we never have time to just walk around. Our day ended up being not only fun to walk around and see new things, but we came home with the most beautiful, huge canvas painting. We had been talking about buying a painting by a local artist from the art gallery for a while, and when we saw this both one we both died! It is all wrapped up now, but hopefully it will have a spot to be displayed in our new apartment and we can post a pic then.

Big Stairs Old Anglican Church more of the church Looking down the street.

Saturday ended with some sunset coctails at Dodgy Dock and watching a movie over some of my homemade taco bowls. Tyler missed my cooking I think. It was great! While Sunday was mostly cleaning and all that productive stuff, it was great as always to forget about school.

Thanks for all your prayers during exam week! It paid off, I did great.  🙂

Article
March 1, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Hospital Visits, DES, and our New Apartment

So I have been meaning to write this post for quite some time. There are so many updates to be shared, but then exam time snuck up and I have been spending every last hour I am not sleeping studying.

First big update has been my selective I am doing at the hospital. I started a couple weeks ago making regular visits to the hospital as part of the selective where we work with physicians and take patient histories and do patient exams – a basic H&P. It has been so cool. I spent over a year volunteering at a hospital in Long Beach before coming to SGU which, in some ways, I was able to see way more than I will ever see in Grenada. However, I love how much we now know. It seems that with each patient I see, I have a pretty decent idea of what is going on. I understand the lab work, I can read and interpret the x-rays and imaging very well, and now I can even understand and start to interpret EKGs. I think the part I enjoy the most is that I can start to see how all of this knowledge I am stuffing into my brain really works together. I work with two different doctors, one who is in ER and one who on a basic medical ward in the general hospital. So far it has been so much fun and so rewarding. The 8+ hours out of my week has been draining, but I think totally worth it. And since we have the next 2 weeks off for exams, I can through myself back into school.

The next big thing I have been doing is leading DES review session for Anatomy. I am pretty sure everyone here knew that I wanted to lead these session by about our 4th week of classes last term. Peer tutoring and explaining concepts is something that I love to do. Perhaps in another life I would make a really good teacher, but I want to be hands on way too much to be able to do that long term. Nevertheless, it has been such a wonderful experience to sort of guide the new class of 1st termers through their hard classes. And as a plus, I think I now know my anatomy about 5 times better than I did after exams last term. Something about seeing it again makes it set in, plus I am constantly surprised by how many of the small details I still remember.

Thirdly, in a non-school related matter – Tyler and I have found a new place to move into this May. We decided last term that our current apartment was simply a little too quirky and a little too small for our likes. Plus, we knew that we could find a nicer place for a lot cheaper rent, so we decided that we would definitely move this summer. We found the most wonderful apartment that is sort of “off-route” as they would call it here. Since it is not on the main road to campus, the rent is almost half of what we pay now. But, it is on the water of the bay, has great big open windows to let the breeze in, is within a gated yard with fruit trees, has a little patio right in front that is all ours. Plus, the property has a big deck and pool that will be fantastic to have on those occasions where we can just sit outside and relax. When we started looking for places, I came up with a bunch of lofty desires for our new place in hopes of being sure that we spent time finding one we would really be comfortable in and that would easily accommodate us both needing to do work and school at the same time. And amazingly enough, we found a place with all of them (minus the hammock, but I will live.) Oh, and it has couches. 3 of them! I cannot wait to move and I am already coming up with ways to craft some cute decorations to make it more homey.

I feel like those are the big highlights. Exams are not too far off, starting a week from Monday. This term is just flying on by. Your prayers as I prepare would be much appreciated.

And for those of you that read regularly, it is spring on the blog again! Since the blog kicked off with our lovely green spring tree (our wedding tree I might add), I feel like we have come full circle. And it also means that our first year of marriage is quickly coming to an end. Crazy how fast life moves sometimes.

Article
January 27, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Rough Beginnings

Wind

It had been particularly windy here the last few days.  Why, I am not really sure. It is usually breezy, but the wind has been particularly strong recently. So much so, that these eerie sounds get made from the way it whips around our apartment that I can hear at night or in the early mornings.

Not much more has happened recently. It has been a week of dealing with lots of little annoying things. This school has been sending me round in circles. Wednesday I attended a training session to be a facilitator for review sessions for new term 1 students. I signed up months ago and was assured that it was a for-sure thing if you pass your classes. I go to the training and my name is not on the list. They have no record of my sign-up (even tho I have proof I submitted the application) and wrote my name down to add-in. I have yet to hear if I got scheduled and when my group will meet. They start Monday and it would be nice to know if I need to be preparing, etc. Unfortunately, I feel like I have pestered them enough today so I will have to wait until Monday and hope that I don’t have a session that starts on Monday.

Secondly, they posted grades today for my finals I took Monday and Tuesday. When I originally checked my parasitology grade, it said I failed. This seemed crazy to me, so I frantically emailed the professor and then worried ran to the office. I was thankful to see a friend of mine sitting there frantically looking through scantrons which gave me the reassurance that it was most likely an error. Fortunately it was just that, an error on their part, and my grade is supposed to be corrected to my rightly earned A. Sigh of relief there.

And thirdly this week I finally turned in my selective papers. SGU offers optional extra classes that are usually clinically oriented. I am (hopefully) taking a community health selective that will allow me to get some experience visiting the Grenada general hospital and taking patient histories, etc. I am really looking forward to it and one of my friends and I decided to sign up together. After finally finding the office we needed, the person we needed to speak with was not there so we handed our papers to a secretary to hope the class is not full. I really hope we get in, we are very excited about taking the class. It sounds like a great opportunity. I guess we will see, lets hope they can be prompt about letting us know. I think it starts in a week!

Anyways, prayers that everything will work out are much appreciated. I am looking forward to getting to do a few things outside of just class to help gain some extra experience and course review.

Tyler and I are hoping to head to St. George’s on Sunday for some Independence Day festivities. There seems to be a sort of national fair thing happening. I am sure that will warrant some stories you can look forward to!

Article
January 24, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

Two Weeks and Two Classes Down

Today I finished final number two. Can you believe that it is only week 3 and I have already taken two finals!

We had only two classes the first two weeks which all ended today and tomorrow my other 4, much harder, classes begin. It has been nice to transition in slowly, but a super bummer that I have been so not busy and Tyler has been playing catch-up with work. He says that starting next weekend he shouldn’t have to work on the weekends anymore, just when I will be back to studying all weekend. LAME!

But anyways, we are enjoying being back to normal life here on the Island. Back to a nice sunny 85 degrees everyday with sporadic rain showers. In fact, I think that this afternoon I will hit the beach. And maybe if I am lucky, I will pull my husband away from work this evening to come join me and we can get some fun, fruity drinks at Umbrellas.

But we are actually very thankful that Tyler is now working full time for one company. God has blessed us there and he loves his job so much, so that makes me very happy. I am looking forward to time changing again so we will only be 3 hours ahead of home, then 5pm there will be only 8pm here. And you can pray for school as real classes start up. I am also leading DES review sessions for 1st termers this term for Anatomy and Biochemistry plus, which some luck, will be taking a community health selective that will allow me to round at the Grenada General Hospital a couple times a week. It will mean that I am really busy, but it should help me really solidify and integrate all that I am learning.

With love from us here in Grenada, we hope you are all enjoying your cold winters and snow storms. If you need a sunny break, come visit!

Article
January 24, 2012
by Stefanie Paulson

The Long Overdue Post about Julian

So this post is way overdue, but break sure did fly by. I just lost track of time. We spent about 18 days in the States and it was packed full of family, friends, and stocking up on American goodies.

Our first big adventure shortly after getting to California was a trip to the cold. After spending the last 5 months in continual August, cold was what we wanted. Compared to Grenada’s sunny, humid, 87 degree weather everyday – California’s chilly 50’s were quite a shock for us. But we decided that we wanted to soak as much up as possible, so we decided to make a trip to the mountains in search of snow. We rented a little cabin at the most beautiful, cozy little inn in Julian for the night. Going to Julian during the holidays is already pretty special to us because last Christmas we went for the anual tree lighting ceremony which we sadly missed this year. But it is a tradition that I wouldn’t mind keeping – and so is staying up there at this inn – so beautiful!

Anyways, we  started off our little 36 hour mini-vacation by hiking up in Mt. Laguna. Snow was everywhere – about a foot and half to two feet. That might not sound like much to our friends in the mountains or on the east coast, but that is pretty good for the San Diego county mountains.Mt. Laguna

We were able to enjoy all of the classic snow activities, snowball fights, building a snowman, snow angels, and even a relaxing bath in a tub full of ice! It was super sunny and cold, for us at least, and the best part was that not too many people had tracked through yet so all of the snow was perfect and free of footprints.

Tyler sitting on an ice toilet reading an imaginary paper Taking a bath in a tub made of ice Tyler conquering the snowy log Me jumping off of a snowy log with mad ninja skills (until I got hurt)
The trail we hiked up Us at the end of the hike View of the dessert from a lookout in Mount Laguna

After our hike, we enjoyed Julian and the awesome Cabin we got to stay in. The main lodge of the inn has the best large fireplace where we sat and drank wine and beer, ate cheese and fruit, and read travel magazines. We even read one about the Caribbean – Grenada wasn’t even mentioned. We clearly know more about the Caribbean than they do. The main lodge of the Inn in Julian

It was the most perfect trip. We loved getting some time to relax, just the two of us after a chaotic semester. It was perfect – many, many husband points to Tyler for planning a great little trip for us.